I play piano, can I play guitar?

[bernadette60614]

Our son, who never "took" the piano does love guitar.

There is a local school which offers parent/child guitar classes and he wants to take those with me.

Anyone play the guitar and the piano?  Any tips?

[unimaster]

Of course you can play the guitar. I played for years after having piano lessons as well. It's not like they interfere with one another.

The age-old adage is that piano is the harder instrument to pick up but easier to master over time, whereas guitar is easy to pick up but much harder to master. I've certainly found this to be the case. The early stages of guitar lessons should be no problem for you, especially if you've got the theory under your belt from playing piano.

My only tip is that you shouldn't try to play both at once. Tends to cause cramps. . . .

[andreadvacchiano]

There's certainly no reason why you can't play both. I have played both for about the same amount of time, and to about the same level.

I've always said that playing the piano gives you the best understanding of music in general, as the piano keyboard makes it very easy to visualise chords and scales, and how they relate to each other. It's harder to visualise these things on the guitar, so hab=vin some piano skills will definitely help your overall musical understanding making it easier to pick things up on the guitar.

It terms of actual technique there's not much cross over between the two instruments other than the developement of finger dexterity and independance.

So yeah, absolutely you can play both. It's a good idea.

[virtuoso80]

I play piano and guitar, and teach both. If you play ANY instrument, you have an advantage learning a second.

The reasons people get discouraged with guitar are slightly different. They feel their hands aren't right for the instrument, that they can't reach or play certain things, that their fingertips hurt (you will grow callouses). Those are the frustration hurdles, and they're slightly different than piano.

Like piano, there are tiny little adjustments you sometimes need to make to make something playable. Hopefully your instructor is wise to that. Also, if he starts you out putting the guitar on your left leg, this is a GOOD sign, not a bad one, because it means he has classical training. I can't tell you how many parents thought their guitar teacher didn't know what they were doing because they started their kid out on the left leg.

[pianoplunker]

Our son, who never "took" the piano does love guitar.

There is a local school which offers parent/child guitar classes and he wants to take those with me.

Anyone play the guitar and the piano?  Any tips?

I picked up on guitar ( pun intended ) when I was taking piano lessons and it was a valuable experience.  I can still play the open chords but that is about it. I never really pursued guitar passed initial callousing of fingertips, and open chords. I could not get with bar chords, my 4th finger wont bend flat. What is good for me is that when I am jamming with guitar players I can look at their hands and know what they are doing just in case I dont know all the chords on the piano